Recommended Web Tools Archives

Semantic Text Analysis with Clear Forest Gnosis

When choosing keywords it is important to also consider other semantically relatied terms that can be coupled with your chosen keyword.

One way to study you competition’s efforts (or your own) in this manner is to use a tool such as Clear Forest Gnosis.

Clear Forest Gnosis (CFG) examines a web page and categorizes the terms that it finds. It categorizes by city, country, company, industry terms, product, technology, organization, state, region and several others. The intent of CFG is to organize the terms on a page in order to understand its underlying semantic atmosphere.

It is this semantic atmosphere, especially when it consists of what CFG calls
“industry terms”, that is of use to you and me.

This kind of semantic text analysis is part of the next big focus for seo and keyword analysis. It is already happening actually.

CFC can be used for more than semantic analysis. It can be used to enhance any kind of website reading. In particular, it can help dissect news sites in order to see at a glance key terms, people and places.

What do you see when you use Clear Forest Gnosis?

When CFG is applied to an open web page, a side bar is opened within Firefox. Rainbow bands appear listing the categories. Terms appear in tree fashion below each category heading. The parentheses after each term indicates the number of times the term appears on the page. All found terms are highlighted on the page. Clicking on an individual term on the tree highlights only that term and scrolls the page to the first occurence of the term.

Let me use my home page as an example. Below is a screen shot of my home page after I have run Clear Forest Gnosis.

This second screenshot shows a closeup of CFG with the industry terms expanded.

As you look down the list you can see there is a good mix of web tool related terms. It is this kind of mix that you want to try to accomplish for your pages.

While CFG is not perfect in finding all the semantically related terms on a page, it is a great start. As the topic of web page semantic domains begins to grow look for more and more of these kinds of tools.

Get on board with the latest keyword analysis from Nichebot Two

Nichebot is one of my favorite free keyword analysis tools. Jim Morris and gang are on the verge of launching Nichebot V2. The original Nichebot will continue to exist (now called Nichebot classic). I suspect version two will have some sort of paid membership. However, in order to participate (at least at the beginning) you need to sign up for the pre-launch newsletter. Only those receiving the launch email will be able to sign up. While I do not know the terms of the offer or cost of the service, it is worth the small effortto sign up and find out.

[tags]keywords, nichebot[/tags]

Keyword Position Tracking Tools

Is your site ranking for your keywords?

Use the following tools to track the postion of your keywords and web pages. They all generally work the same. Enter the URL of a web page. Associate a keyword phrase with that web page. The tool will then track the position of that web page within the search engines for that given keyword phrase. Most of these require a manual intervention to update the rankings. One offers an automated email update. The first four are free, the second is a commercial product. All require a Google API key.

• Digital Point Keyword Tracker – nifty little tool. Requires manual update or a CRON job. I have had problems with it updating properly. It has been inconsistent in my experience. I’m in the process of creating a new account with new Google API key to see if I can get consistency.
• Splutweb Keyword Tracker Tool- It has worked pretty well. Limited to tracking only 20 keyword/page pairs. Can be setup to auto update and send out an email. This latter feature is nice. Just wish I could setup more keyword/page pairs.
• 2KRT Keyword Ranking Tool – Excel spreadsheet based/VBA application. I have not tried this one out. Pulling the information directly into Excel could be helpful.
• GoogleRankings Position Tracker – In the process of testing this one out.
• Advanced Web Ranking – Commercial product. Price is $60. I have only done the 30 day demo. Slick graphs. Very helpful. I had no problem with it updating the rankings. Has advantage of local storing your keyword information.

[tags]keywords, keyword tracking[/tags]

Benchmarking with Google Trends

Google Trends is a cool little tool to see the relationship between keyword searches.

However, one of the drawbacks is the lack of any quantifiable data. The line graphs merely show relationship NOT actual volume.

In order to get an idea of what a line on a Google Trends chart represents one must set some benchmarks.

By estimating the volume of searches for a given term, that term can be used as a benchmark to be used against other terms.

Using the free keyword tools provided by Nichebot, Digital Point, SEOToolset, and SEOBook I estimated the traffic for the following keywords: dog food, health food, cat food, fish food and bird food. I choose terms that were relatively simple. And, as it worked out, these terms also provided a nice scale of volume.

On the Google Trends Chart, “dog food” was the most searched. I assigned it a factor of 1. “health food” saw about 75% of the volume of “dog food” so I assigned it a factor of .75. I did this with the other terms in turn.

In my keyword analysis, the most consistent results were produced for “cat food”. Using the “cat food” monthly estimates as my base, I then figured the monthly estimates for the other terms using the factors I had created above. So my benchmarks are as follows (the numbers are monthly estimates):

• dog food – 60000
• health food – 45000
• cat food – 15000
• fish food – 12000
• bird food – 5400

(I realize of course that this methodology is somewhat suspect. The data is from multiple sources so at best this is a guesstimate. No keyword tool is even close to being accurate. Keyword analysis is a guessing game at best.)

Now I have some benchmarks to use when using Google Trends.

For example, I was interested in finding out the approximate number of searches for the term “web browser”.

I typed, “web browser” and “bird food” into Google Trends. The line chart showed “web browser” way above “bird food”. I then typed in “web browser” and “dog food”. The two were pretty close. So I could guess that the number of searches for “web browser” were similar to those for “dog food”: around 60,000 a month.

[tags]google, google+trends, keywords[/tags]

Google Trends Review

Google just recently launched a new tool from their labs called Google Trends.

Users enter multiple search terms and Google Trends displays various trend graphs about those terms.

It is striking to notice that there are no numbers, other than a year range, associated with any of the data. No quantative analysis can take place. Google Trends solely displays a line graph that lets users simply see less versus more kinds of relationships between terms.

It is, in many ways, a simple keyword analysis tool that lets users see if one search term is used more than another.

Terms are entered into the search box separated by commas. For this example, pretend we are a clothing company interested in whether more people search for the terms “pants”, “jeans”, or “trousers”.

Enter “pants,jeans,trousers” into the search box and click “Search Trends”.

The first graph displayed is split into two parts. Lines above the year marker show search volume. This represents how often searchers use that term to search. Lines below the year marker show News Reference volume. This is how often those terms are used in news articles. Each term is color coded.

In our example, it is easy to see that both “jeans” and “pants” are searched for substantially more than “trousers”. “jeans” also has a comfortable distance between itself and pants.

Under News Reference volume, it seems both jeans and pants are used just as regularly, while trousers is not used as much.

Below this line graph is a series of three bar graphs that break down the search volume by city, region and language.

Remember, this data only shows a general trend. No numbers are associated with the graph so users dont know if terms are being search for 10,000 times a day or 10 times a month. This tool should only be used to do initial kinds of keyword analysis.

Google itself states:

Google Trends aims to provide insights into broad search patterns. It is based upon just a portion of our searches, and several approximations are used when computing your results. Please keep this in mind when using it.

In our example, our pretend clothing could determine the following:

• Jeans and Pants are terms that deserve further research
• While trousers does not perform well overall, there is a substantial number of people in the United Kingdom that use the term. Marketing efforts in this region of the world should still consider using this term.

Further research would include doing quantitative analysis: How many searches per month? Are these terms worth focusing on? How difficult would it be to rank well using these terms? Etc.

It will be interesting to see how Google Trends develops. While everyone would want to see some concrete numbers associated with those graphs, I do not forsee Google ever doing anything like that. Google Trends is a good tool for beginners to begin to understand the relationships between “good” search terms and “bad” search terms. The tool does not give a complete picture of term use but could definitely be a small part of one’s keyword analysis arsenal.

[tags]Google, Google Trends, keywords[/tags]

Keyword Seasonality

People search for different things at different times.

For example, Valentine’s items are searched for from early January to mid-February. The rest of the year no one except for the occaisonally confused person will be searching for such items. Thus, keywords that pertain to Valentines have a particular season in which they will attract traffic. Don’t expect much traffic to a Valentines based site in July!

Of course, the seasonality of holiday based keywords is easy to see. However it pertains to other items as well. For the most part, keyword seasonality correlates with general retail trends. People don’t search for patio furniture in October.

Some keyword phrases that don’t seem to have a seasonality factor probably actually do. Technology does not seem to take any breaks. However, don’t forget that summer times when people vacation or Christmas time when people are focused elsewhere, that searches for particular phrases can dip.

Being aware of keyword seasonality is essential. First, it helps explain certain traffic patterns. Second, it can be an excellent targeting tool for marketing. Third, understanding seasonality helps avoid keyword performance disappointment.

The only tool that tracks this seasonality is Keyword Discovery. It tracks keyword usage up to the prior twelve months. It is easy to see the ups and downs over the prior year for any given keywords.

[tags]keywords, keyword seasonality[/tags]

Keyword traffic activity tool

How much traffic can certain keywords generate?

To be honest, this is really the wrong question to ask when doing keyword analysis. However, for many, it continues to be a driving force in web page development. While a comprehensive perspective about keyword analyis is the cure, finding realistic traffic numbers is at least a bandaid for the overzealous and overhyped expectations.

SEOToolset by Bruce Clay provides a keyword activity tool that provides, in my estimation, a clearer representation of keyword traffic than other tools. This tool is the second tool listed on the above page. In my experience, the numbers I see for my high ranking pages tend to reflect the general trends indicated by the numbers generated with this tool. Note, this does not mean those pages see those exact numbers or even close. It is simply the general trend.

Use this tool to simply figure out if a keyword phrase is healthy or not.

NicheBOT offers Keyword Discovery and WordTracker

I just received a comment on my post about Nichebot switching to Keyword Discovery from Jim Morris, owner of Nichebot. In short, NicheBOT is not switching but adding! They will now offer analysis from three tools: Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker and Overture. I will blockquote the pertinent parts of his comment here for easy reference. It explains the whole matter. I think his comments are right about using both Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery. Each serves a particular function and purpose.

…Actually, this was NOT a switch out, but rather,
a miscommunication between NicheBOT and WordTracker.

Apparently, a day after I sent out notice about
the Keyword Discovery update, WordTracker wrote
us and told us that NicheBOTs connection to
WordTracker was faulty and they gave us proper
instructions to fix it, which has now been done….

We then restored the WordTrackerr tool to
the following URL right here:

http://www.nichebot.com/wt/

So everything is alive and well with both
WordTracker and Keyword Discovery, and the
Overture tool is there as well.

In fact, I think WT and KD are two separate
distinct type of keyword services. One is good
for short term cycles of keywords while the
other is good for long term cycles of keywords
that reflect results over the the past 12 months.
Each service has its highlights and advantages,
so it really depends on the type of keyword research
an individual wishes to conduct as to which flavor
of keyword service to use.

Either way, I think both keyword services are
still very viable in todays keyword research
market….

[tags]Keyword Discovery, Nichebot, Wordtracker[/tags]

Wordtracker’s Guide to Keyword Research

Wordtracker publishes a small ebook titled Keyword Research Guide. While the ebook is geared towards Wordtracker it is actually a very helpful guide to keyword research in general. Through the means of a fictional scenario, 9 marketing gurus offer advice on how to use keyword analysis to benefit an overall marketing campaign. Topics covered include traffic conversion, estimating market size, understanding customers by understanding their searches, finding competitors, plus others. Understand that all keyword analysis tools are flawed. However, this little guide demonstrates a more comprehensive and thoughtful approach to keyword analysis. For beginners struggling to know how to use the data returned by keyword analysis tools, this guide is a recommended starting point.

NicheBOT switches to Keyword Discovery

I noticed that Nichebot has recently switched from Wordtracker to Keyword Discovery. I have heard other rumblings about others making a similar switch. I am currently re-reviewing Keyword Discovery and hope to have something posted within the next two weeks.

I have written about the limitations of keyword tools in my keyword popularity research and keyword suggestion tools articles. It will be interesting to watch to see if this is the beginning of the end for Wordtracker unless of course they can reinvent themselves. It will be also interesting to see if the rest of the keyword analysis world goes through fundamental (and hopefully beneficial) changes.

UPDATE 2/9/2006: Nichebot retains Wordtracker. See comment below and this post.

McDar Keyword Analysis Tool Review

The McDar Keyword Analysis Tool is a different kind of keyword analysis tool. It can be used to perfom analysis AFTER a page has been optimized. It can also be used to study the competition for a keyword.

In order to use the tool to perfom analysis for a live web page, two steps must have been accomplished:

1. Onpage Optimization for that page for a particular keyword/keyword phrase (see my article on onpage optimiziation)
2. The optimized page is live and crawled by Google

Once the above steps have been accomplished, the tool is fairly easy to use. Two items need to be entered:

1. The URL of the web page to be optimized
2. The keyword on which the analysis of that page will be based

McDar will then provide the following analysis based on those inputs:

• Pages Listed in Google (at the time of this writing, all sites were returning zero. There could be a temporary problem with the tool.)
• # of backlinks to that page in Google
• PageRank
• Rank for that page using ‘allinanchor: entered keyword phrase’
• # of backlinks in Yahoo

McDar will first provide that information for the web page to be analyzed. Below that web page it will list the top ten listings for that keyword and the result information for each of those sites.

How can these results be used?

Though SEO is a complicated matter, the McDar tool has chosen to look at a small set of SEO factors. Essentially McDar helps webmasters answer this question: What are some things that MAY need to done to a web page in order for it to beat the competition?

A website may need more links with the URL anchor containing the keyword. A website may need more backlinks, whether in Google or Yahoo. A page may need improved PageRank.

SEO is far more complicated than those factors. However, the McDar tool provides a quick snapshot on how a web page stacks up against the competition.

The tool can be used to study the competiton for a keyword. Before creating a web page based on a given keyword do the following.

1. Enter keyword in Google and capture the top ranking web site for that keyword
2. In the McDar tool enter the captured URL and the keyword phrase
3. McDar will show how the other nine top websites compare with that top website

The information returned by McDar can help make informed decision about optimization. A lot of backlinks may be required in order to make the top ten. Or possibly find that the competition is weak, and a few key backlinks with the appropriate anchor text could enter a web page into the top ten.

Let me add one caveat to all of this: Onpage optimization provides the foundation for good search engine ranking. Onpage optimization along with the results provided from McDar can provide a webmaster with the knowledge to compete for more competitive keywords.

Keyword Density Tool Recommendation

Looking for a good keyword density tool?

A good keyword density provides information that can be used. Sounds simple doesn’t it? However, a lot of the keyword density tools provide information that is useless.

Some keyword tools return all the single words within the body text of a web page. They also provide the density percentage for all those words. Is this helpful? Sort of but not quite. The picture is not comprehensive enough.

Other tools provide the same analyis for one, two and three word phrases. However, it is not stated whether the analysis is body text only, or includes META info and TITLE info.

Ideally a keyword density tool would do at least the following:

• Provide keyword density for the TITLE meta tag
• Provide keyword density for the DESCRIPTION meta tag
• Provide keyword density for the KEYWORD meta tag
• Provide keyword density for words considered header information (ie word in H1 tags or between STRONG tags)
• Provide keyword density for words within the text body
• Provide keyword density for all five elements above combined
• Provide the above keyword densities for one word phrases
• Provide the above keyword densities for two word phrases
• Provide the above keyword densities for three word phrases
• Provide the above keyword densities for four word phrases
• Provide this information in an easy to read format

Bruce Clay offers a Keyword Density tool that I have found to be very helpful. There is a free version and a paid versionl. The intermediate SE optimizer will benefit from the free version. The advanced optimizer will get the most out of a full paid subscription. A subscription to the whole SEOToolset (which includes much more than the Keyword Density tool) is $90 for three months ($30/month). The price is not for beginners unfortunately. However, I recommend all beginners to LEARN as much as they can about SEO first, before using a tool like this.

I used this tool early on before I knew much about SEO. My thought at the time was that it was too complicated. I couldn’t understand it. However, with many more months of optimization under my belt I returned to it and found it to be superior to the others I had been trying. Plus, knowing much more about SEO, the tool made complete sense.

I recommend beginners to read my search engine optimization tip article before spending money on SEO tools.

Keyword Guru Dan Thies Interview

Aaron Wall of Seobook.com conducted an interview with Dan Thies. Dan is well known as an expert in keyword research. Though a lot of what he says is aimed towards SEO professionals, there is a lot that the beginner can glean from the interview.

The three main bits I gleaned:

• KEI is fool’s gold. Quotes from the interview:
  

  KEI is the biggest mistake in the history of SEO. So paying attention to KEI numbers is the biggest mistake you can make in keyword research.

  It’s a formula that some folks use to try to evaluate the usefulness of search terms, but it’s a really stupid formula and utterly useless. There is no magic number.

  Most folks doing their own keyword research utterly overlook the customer’s side. What problems does the product solve, what applications does it have, how do they use it, why do they choose it over an alternative?

• Recommended Book
  • Streetwise Relationship Marketing On The Internet
• Recommended Keyword Analysis Tools
  • Wordtracker However, he emphasized that the most important part of Wordtracker was the popularity count. He trusted Wordtrackers figures more than Overtures. Plus, he mentioned that Wordtracker has other tools that are often overlooked beyond the basic keyword searching.
  • Keyword Discovery I reviewed this keyword tool before. It was less than impressive.
  • Semphonic I will have to give the 30 day trial period a whirl. However, beyond the free trial, it is too expensive for the beginner to continue to use.
  • Adgooroo Again, will have to take it for a trial spin. But at $50/month for basic service, it is priced out of the ballpark for the beginner.
  • Keyword Intelligence $90 a month and no trial period!
  • Good Keywords A lot of people recommend this tool for general brainstorming. I guess I am missing something. It is nothing more than Overture on my desktop.

Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool Review

Digital Point’s Keyword Suggestion Tool combines data from both Wordtracker and Overture in one tool.

Enter a keyword phrase.
Enter the security code they provide. (This is to prevent spamming. Only need to enter this once per browser session.)
Digital Point returns two columns of data. The first column is Wordtracker and the second column is Overture. Each column is made up of the searched term plus alternative search terms. Next to eacch search term is the potential count. The count is the number of times a term is searched for per day.

Understanding the numbers:

Wordtracker and Overture use different data, thus their numbers are often different. Read my article on keyword popularity research to understand the difference. See also my article on keyword suggestion tools and my review of Wordtracker.

If, for a given keyword, the Wordtracker and Overture data match or are close, then the results are probably accurate. However there is one caveat. Is the Wordtracker data truly per day? A Digital Point Forum post indicates that it is indeed a per day number. However, Wordtracker’s own website indicates that the number is for a two month period. Who to believe? I don’t know as of yet.

Given the anomalies with the numbers, the Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool is extremely helpful for finding keywords with traffic. Finding keywords with traffic is a first step in search engine optimization.

NicheBOT Review

NicheBOT is an online keyword analysis tool that is great for beginners. Beginners can get learn about Wordtracker, Overture and Google all from this one web site.

NicheBOT looks like a search engine with the typical search box centered in the middle of the page.

There are six different searches that users can perform.

Wordtracker Keywords

Any entered keyword phrase is returned with the top fifteen Wordtracker listing based on that phrase. The listings are in order by count. Count represents the number of searches in the last two months from searches done on Dogpile and Metacrawler. Pages includes the number of pages on Google that contain any or all of the keywords entered. Competition represents the number of sites on Google with that exact keyword phrase. Ratio is the competition value divided by the count value. The closer to zero the ratio, the better a keyword (i.e. has less competition supposedly).

The count that is returned is the count that would be returned even if you had a paid Wordtracker subscription. In the end, the count, even though flawed, is the most valuable item and it is available here for free.

For more information see my Wordtracker Review and my articles on keyword popularity research and keyword suggestion tools.

Overture Keywords

The Overture Keywords section is the same as the Wordtracker page except that it uses Overture data. Count, Pages, Competition and Ratio are all computed similarly.

Thesaurus

Provides 15 synonyms of the entered word. This is based on Wordtracker data and technology. The tool can be used for keyword brain storming sessions.

Lateralus

Provides 15 related keywords of the entered phrase. Lateral searching is different from Thesaurus searching. While thesaurus searching finds synonyms, lateral searching finds terms that are “associated” with the term. For example, a thesaurus search for “book” returns volume, ledger, record, etc. while a lateral search returns books, literature, how to get published, etc.

Keyword Analysis

An entered term returns that top 15 sites on Google for that keyword. The number of backlinks, number of pages indexed, and the Google PageRank for each site is included. This information is helpful in determining the true level of competition.

Google Ranking

After entering a list of keyword phrases and a URL, this will return the rank for that page for that keyword within Google. Use it to find where your particular pages rank for your keywords.

NicheBOT allows users the ability to create an account to save their keyword searches (called Keyword Basket). This could be handy but it lacks a lot of functionality that would make it a true asset. Plus, there is no privacy statement posted anywhere. How does NicheBOT use what I saved? Keyword competition is intense. Users need to know their information and their searches are kept safe and not misused. Personally, I keep this information in a spreadsheet offline.

Searches made on MetaCrawler are made public through the NicheBOT Live tool. Leave the page open and it will automatically refresh.

NicheBOT provides one stop shopping for keyword analysis. Great for beginners.

UPDATED: July 5, 2006

Wordtracker Review

Wordtracker is the most popular keyword analysis tool being used today. Wordtracker allows users to assess keyword traffic and keyword competition.

How does Wordtracker work?

Wordtracker bases a keyword’s traffic on the number of searches over the last two months within the Dogpile/Metacrawler search engines.

Keyword competition is based on finding the number of exact phrase matches within a particular search engine. The free version of Wordtracker finds this number using AltaVista. Paid versions of Wordtracker allow users to choose Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.

Wordtracker plugs these two values into a formula. This formula is called the KEI or Keyword Effectiveness Index. The number outputted by this formula will determine whether a keyword should be used for optimization. A number close to zero indicates a very poor keyword. A number over 100 indicates a good keyword. Numbers over 400 are considered excellent.

The KEI formula is P squared divided by C. P is the popularity number and C is the competition number.

I know that for most people this is not new information.

What are the problems with Wordtracker?

I have written elsewhere on the problems with keyword analysis tools.

I will discuss the problems with the popularity number and competition number in brief.

As mentioned, the popularity number is gleaned from Dogpile/Metacrawler usage. These meta-search engines attract a fairly limited audience. It is not representative of the larger user community. However, because the big search engines do not reveal any user data, one must take what one can get. The Dogpile/Metacrawler numbers are the best we have. With this in mind, the traffic numbers returned by Wordtracker tend to be conservative.

Wordtracker data does not provide any sense of seasonality. Thinking of creating a site geared towards Valentine’s Day? Unless the search for keywords took place back in February, March and April, there will be no adequate data. The two month limitation is indeed limiting, though Overture’s data is no better as it only provides data for the last month.

Even if keywords are not seasonal a two month snapshot is subject to change. A search for “paisley socks” done in November might reveal different data than a search done in March.

Are Wordtracker traffic numbers REALLY based on a two month period?

Digital Point offers a Keyword Suggestion Tool that uses Wordtracker data. The Wordtracker data is labeled as “count/day”. However the numbers are the exact same numbers generated when using Wordtracker directly. Wordtracker clearly states that the data is gleaned from the past two month period. On the Digital Point Forum, the following exchange occurred:

How can your wordtracker values say “per day” when wordtrackers ACTUAL results are almost the same value and say “per 60 days”? Which is right, you or wordtracker, because you both cannot be right.

Oooooohhhh… that. The numbers were intentionally shifted based on a conversation with Wordtracker. The goal was to get the numbers relatively similar (between Overture and Wordtracker).

I want a straight answer about what the Wordtracker popularity number really represents. Per day or per two month period are very, very different.

I wrote in the article referenced above:

The question is not how MUCH competition but how DIFFICULT is the competition. I can run a race with one million turtles. That’s a lot of competition. However, it is not very difficult competition. I can run a race with one cheetah. The competition is small but extremely difficult. There exists a need for a competition difficulty quotient.

No tool truly assesses the qualitative nature of the competition. Competition is only quantified. Having a quantified picture of the competition is only 20% of the total equation. To use another racing analogy: There are typically 8-10 runners in the 100 meter dash. Does the amount of competition really tell you anything? Knowing WHO the runners are, knowing their past performance, knowing how they train, is a far better assessment.

Do I need to pay to get the most out of Wordtracker?

A paid subscription to Wordtracker gains users two things: access to exact phrase match data from particular search engines and a KEI figure based on that competition value. I can figure up the competition data on my own without having to pay. I can then figure up the KEI on my own. However, I think that most ratio kind of results whether KEI ratios or plain Results/Searches ratios are dubious at best. The only thing worthwhile is the popularity count which Wordtracker offers for free.

Keyword Discovery Review

Keyword Discovery is an online keyword analysis tool. From all looks and appearances it is striving to compete with the ever popular Wordtracker.

How does it compare?

For $10, a user can sign up for a one day trial. This is $2.50 more than Wordtracker.

A Keyword Discovery search covers a larger set of databases than Wordtracker.

Our database contains over 20 billion searches spanning the last 12 months. We compile this information from 37 different sources. These include major international, pay per click, meta and regional search engines.

Their data goes back for 12 months as opposed to just 2 months with Wordtracker. This is very helpful when searching for seasonal keywords like those related to holidays and such.

The search functionality is a little confusing. There is the typical text field for keyword input. Next to this field is a drop down list with various options. I chose “search”. I tried this with multiple keywords. Each and every time nothing was returned. Either their system is still in beta/something is broken/or the feature is not available to one day users. I could not find a statement anywhere on the site indicating any of the above.

The drop down list did offer numerous options for searching Overture data. I chose Overture (United States) and entered my keywords again. Finally some results. The result set initially returns possible related keywords with the number of searches. Users can click the check box next to the keywords and click the Analyze button to provide additional analysis. The analysis phase returns additional related keywords with three additional columns of information: Occurrences (number of pages on which those terms appear i.e. competition), KEI (keyword effectiveness index) this is the same formula that Wordtracker uses, and Predicted Daily (number of potential searches of that word a day).

None of this is really anything new that other tools don’t already provide. There are free tools that do similar things (see Nichebot).

One cool feature is the twelve month graph. Clicking on the number of searches produces a graph that outlines the number of searches over the last year. Users can use this to determine seasonality. I wish that the graph started with the current month on the far right. It would be easier to discern that the data was for the last twelve months. Instead, the graph shows the data starting with January on the left and December on the right. It would be easy to assume since I did this search in June that everything to the left of June was past data and everything to right is predicated data. Having read the documentation I know this isn’t the case, but the visual presentation of the graph does not make that easily discernible.

I also tried the “Related” search functionality. This is supposed to return other potential keywords that are related to one I entered. I chose “paisley socks” as my keyword. The list returned included:
paisley (of course), socks (uh huh), gymboree (huh?!?), nwt (what?), purple, pair and laugh. Not quite what I expected and not very useful. To be fair I tried other keywords and received similar irrelevant results.

Overall, the site gave me that “great idea but not ready for prime time feeling”.

UPDATE: I haven’t had time to re-review Keyword Discovery. If and when I do I will posting a separate post.

Using Gigablast for keyword analysis

Gigablast is a small search engine that provides a feature that can come in handy for finding keywords.

With each search Gigablast returns “Giga Bits”. Giga Bits are additional terms can could be related to the initial search terms entered. This is helpful for brainstorming sessions. Type in a general keyword and see what related terms it returns. Then you can plug those more precise terms into a tool like Wordtracker or such and find how effective it is.

Consider it a handy keyword brainstorming tool. I would definitely keep it in my keyword tool box.